--- title: Gritty Made a Very Relatable Debut By Falling on the Ice description: In the first public outing of the controversial new Philadelphia Flyers team mascot, Gritty had an issue with the ice. canonical: https://time.com/5405739/gritty-debut-fall/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-25T15:26:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:04.318Z og:title: Gritty Made a Very Relatable Debut By Falling on the Ice og:description: The controversial new Philadelphia Flyers mascot had a less than smooth start og:url: https://time.com/5405739/gritty-debut-fall/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Gritty Made a Very Relatable Debut By Falling on the Ice twitter:description: The controversial new Philadelphia Flyers mascot had a less than smooth start twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Gritty Made a Very Relatable Debut By Taking a Tumble on the Ice  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 25, 2018 3:26 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Sep 25, 2018 3:26 PM UTC It was a tough start for Gritty, the [viral new mascot](http://time.com/5405221/gritty-mascot/) for the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team, who made his game debut on Monday — and promptly slipped and fell on the ice. Legs flailing, orange fur bright against the white ice, Gritty makes quite a picture of a floundering mascot. Luckily he was decked out in his helmet to keep his head protected during the fall — and we can guess that his voluminous mascot costume at least provides for plenty of padding, a nice layer of protection against the cold, hard ice. But it’s not a particularly auspicious starting point for a character who has already raised eyebrows with his googly eyes and distinctive posture. And unfortunately the Flyers also had a rough day of it, [falling 4 to 3](https://www.google.com/search?q=flyers+bruins&oq=flyers+bruins&aqs=chrome..69i57.1335j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#sie=m;/g/11gl2whfcl;7;/m/05gwr;dt;fp;1) in a preseason game against the Boston Bruins. (Their mascot, meanwhile, is the rather more dignified [Blades](https://shop.nhl.com/boston-bruins/mascot/t-14150563+c-46455446+z-919-3828261897), a fierce ice-skating brown bear.) Better luck next time to both Gritty and his teammates as they take on the New York Rangers [on Thursday](https://www.google.com/search?q=flyers+bruins&oq=flyers+bruins&aqs=chrome..69i57.1335j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#sie=t;/m/0hn2q;7;/m/05gwr;mt;fp;1) in another preseason matchup. The Rangers [don’t have a mascot](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/sports/hockey/a-mascot-with-a-fuzzy-future.html), so at least Gritty won’t have much competition on that side of things. > [](https://twitter.com/SInow/status/1044378269016104965) > [](https://twitter.com/GrittyNHL/status/1044383577666998272) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilaBCoulter/status/1044372506025644032) > [](https://twitter.com/BroadStHockey/status/1044393798216937473) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5405739/gritty-debut-fall/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5405739/gritty-debut-fall/"},"headline":"Gritty Made a Very Relatable Debut By Taking a Tumble on the Ice","datePublished":"2018-09-25T15:26:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:04.318Z","description":"Sorry, Gritty","url":"https://time.com/5405739/gritty-debut-fall/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5405739/gritty-debut-fall/","name":"Gritty Made a Very Relatable Debut By Taking a Tumble on the Ice"}}]}] ```